The following list indicates when missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) first preached in the territory of present-day countries.[1]
| Date | Country (current name and territory) | First official church missionary | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1830 | United States | Samuel H. Smith | Smith is regarded as the "first missionary" of the LDS Church. He preached in New York in June 1830. |
| 1830 | Canada | Joseph Smith, Sr. and Don Carlos Smith | Although Phineas Young preached in Upper Canada several months before the Smiths, when he did so he was not a member of the church and therefore was not an official missionary of the church. The Smiths preached in villages north of the St. Lawrence River in Upper Canada in September 1830. |
| 1837 | United Kingdom | Heber C. Kimball and Orson Hyde | Kimball and Hyde first preached in Preston, England |
| 1840 | Ireland | John Taylor, James McGuffie, and William Black | A few months before Taylor, McGuffie, and Black arrived in Ireland, Reuben Headlock preached in Belfast, which was part of Ireland at the time but which is now in Northern Ireland in the United Kingdom |
| 1840 | Australia | William Barratt | Barratt was a 17-year-old convert from England whose family emigrated to Australia. Before his departure, he was set apart as a missionary to Australia. |
| 1841 | Netherlands | Orson Hyde | Hyde spent a week in Rotterdam and Amsterdam preaching to rabbis. |
| 1841 | Germany | Orson Hyde | A British church member named James Howells preached in Germany in 1840, but he was not an official missionary of the church. |
| 1841 | Turkey | Orson Hyde | Hyde preached in Constantinople. |
| 1841 | Israel | Orson Hyde | Hyde preached in Jerusalem and dedicated Palestine for the return of the Jews. |
| 1843 | Samoa | "four men" | |
| 1844 | French Polynesia | Addison Pratt, Noah Rogers, and Benjamin Franklin Grouard | Preached first in Tubuai. Preached in Tahitian; first official church missionaries to preach in a language other than English. |
| 1850 | Denmark | Erastus Snow, John E. Forsgren, and George P. Dykes | First preached in Copenhagen |
| 1850 | France | John Taylor and Curtis E. Boulton | A Welsh convert named William Howells preached in France in 1849, but he was not an official missionary of the church. |
| 1850 | Italy | Lorenzo Snow, Joseph Toronto, and Thomas Stenhouse | First preached in Genoa |
| 1850 | Sweden | John E. Forsgren | |
| 1850 | Switzerland | Thomas Stenhouse and Lorenzo Snow | |
| 1851 | Norway | Hans F. Petersen | Petersen was one of the first converts baptized in Denmark |
| 1851 | Iceland | Guðmundur Guðmundsson and Thorarinn Thorason | Guðmundsson and Torason joined the church in Denmark and were sent back to their native Iceland as missionaries. |
| 1851 | India | Joseph Richards | Church members Benjamin Richey and George Barber preached in India in 1849, but they were not official missionaries of the church. |
| 1851 | Chile | Parley P. Pratt, Phoebe Pratt and Rufus C. Allen | Phoebe was Parley's wife. |
| 1852 | Malta | Lorenzo Snow | |
| 1853 | South Africa | Jesse Haven, Leonard L. Smith, and William H. Walker | Preached first in Cape Town. |
| 1853 | China | Hosea Stout, James Lewis, and Chapman Duncan | Preached first in Hong Kong. |
| 1853 | Jamaica | Darwin Richardson, Aaron F. Fan, Jesse Turpin, and A. B. Lambson | |
| 1853 | Sri Lanka | Chauncey W. West and Benjamin F. Dewey | |
| 1854 | New Zealand | Augustus Farnham and William Cooke | Preached first in Auckland and Nelson |
| 1854 | Thailand | Elam Luddington | Preached first in Bangkok. |
| 1856 | Mauritius | George Kershaw | |
| 1865 | Austria | Orson Pratt and William W. Ritter | |
| 1876 | Mexico | Daniel Webster Jones and Ammon N. Tenney | |
| 1876 | Finland | Carl A. Sundstrom and John E. Sundstrom | Preached first in Vaasa. |
| 1884 | Czech Republic | Thomas Biesinger | Preached in Prague. |
| 1885 | Hungary | Thomas Biesinger and Paul Hammer | Preached in Budapest. |
| 1888 | Belgium | Mischa Markow | Preached in Antwerp. |
| 1891 | Tonga | Brigham Smoot and Alva J. Butler | |
| 1895 | Russia | August Höglund | Preached in St. Petersburg. |
| 1899 | Serbia | Mischa Markow | Preached in Belgrade. |
| 1899 | Croatia | Mischa Markow | |
| 1899 | Romania | Mischa Markow | |
| 1900 | Bulgaria | Mischa Markow | |
| 1901 | Japan | Heber J. Grant, Horace S. Ensign, Louis A. Kelsch, and Alma O. Taylor | |
| 1903 | Latvia | Mischa Markow | Preached in Riga. |
| 1905 | Greece | ||
| 1925 | Argentina | Rulon S. Wells and Rey Pratt | Preached first in Buenos Aires. Wells preached in German and Pratt preached in Spanish. |
| 1928 | Brazil | Rheinhold Stoof, William F. Heinz, and Emil Schindler | Preaching began among German speakers. |
| 1929 | Slovakia | Arthur Gaeth | Gaeth was the first mission president of the Czechoslovakia Mission. Thomas Biesinger had previously preached within Czechoslovakia, but only in the current territory of the Czech Republic. |
| 1930 | Zimbabwe | ||
| 1946 | Costa Rica | Arwell L. Pierce, Robert B. Miller, and David D. Lingard | |
| 1947 | Guatemala | Seth G. Mattice, Earl E. Hansen, Robert B. Miller, and David D. Lingard | |
| 1947 | Uruguay | Frederick S. Williams | |
| 1949 | El Salvador | Glenn W. Skousen and Omer Farnsworth | |
| 1950 | Paraguay | Frederick S. Williams, Sister Williams and William S. Farnsworth. | The first baptism was performed by Samuel J. Skousen, a former missionary in Argentina who was then working as the military attache to the United States Embassy in Paraguay, he baptized Carlos Alerto Rodriguez, having previously been authorized to do so by the First Presidency. Williams was president of the Argentine Mission when he went with his wife and Elder Farnsworth to began missionary work in Paraguay. Three additional missionaries, Keith J. Morris, Norval C. Jesperson and Daryl L. Anderson were sent after President Williams had determined that the government would allow missionary work to proceed. |
| 1952 | Honduras | James T. Thorup and George W. Allen | |
| 1953 | Nicaragua | Manuel Arias and Archie R. Mortensen | |
| 1954 | Fiji | Boyd L. Harris and Sheldon L. Abbott | |
| 1954 | South Korea | Richard L. Detton and Don G. Powell | |
| 1964 | Bolivia | Sterling Nicolayson, President of the Andes Mission, met with American ex-patriot members in Bolivia in October to November. Missionaries under him arrived in late November and baptized their first covert, Victor Walter Vallejos, just before Christmas.[2] | In 1962 Norval Jesperson, who had been among the first six missionaries in Paraguay, became the director of the American-Bolivian Center in Cochabamaba. He shared the gospel with several people and baptized Maria van Gemerfen. |
| 1956 | Peru | Darwin Thomas, Edward T. Hall, Donald L. Hokanson, Shirrel M. Plowman | |
| 1956 | Taiwan | Weldon J. Kitchen, Keith Madsen, Duane W. Dean, and Melvin C. Fish | |
| 1961 | Philippines | Ray Goodson, Harry Murray, Kent Lowe, and Nestor Ledesma | |
| 1963 | Luxembourg | Hyrum M. Smith and Gerald E. Malmrose | |
| 1965 | Ecuador | Craig Carpenter, Bryant R. Gold, Lindon Robinson, and Paul O. Allen | |
| 1965 | Panama | Ted E. Brewerton | |
| 1966 | Colombia | Randall Harmsen and Jerry Broome | Preached first in Bogotá. |
| 1967 | Venezuela | Ted E. Brewerton, Floyd Baum, Neil Gruwell, David Bell, and Fred Podlesny | |
| 1968 | Singapore | Kim A. Shipley, Joel Richards III, Rhett T. Bake and Melvin D. Shurtz. | |
| 1970 | Spain | Clark Hinckley and a few others.[3] | |
| 1970 | Indonesia | Frank Willard, Dale Storer, Robert Meier, Ross Marchant, Greg Hawker and Larry Hunt.[4] | |
| 1972 | Kiribati | Eb L. Davis | |
| 1972 | Malaysia | Elam Luddington had preached on the island of Penang in 1854. Anthony Lim, the first Malaysian baptized in Malaysia, was baptized on December 3, 1972. | |
| 1973 | Vietnam | Colin B. Van Orman, James L. Chrisensen, David T. Posey, and Richard C. Holloman | |
| 1974 | Portugal | William Grant Bangerter | |
| 1975 | Slovenia | Neil D. Schaerrer | |
| 1975 | Vanuatu | Asaeli Mokofisi & Peni Malohifo’ou (of Tonga) and Brett Edward Olsen & Rodvern Lowry (of Canada) | |
| 1976 | Micronesia | George L. Mortensen and Aldric Porter | Preached first on Pohnpei. |
| 1977 | Marshall Islands | William Wardel and Steven Cooper | |
| 1977 | Poland | Matthew and Marion Ciembronowicz[5] | |
| 1977 | Trinidad and Tobago | Chris Doty, Doug Mathews, Randy Clark, and David Roos | |
| 1978 | Dominican Republic | John A. Davis and Ada Davis | Latter-day Saints Eddie Amparo and Mercedes Amparo preached prior to 1978, but they were not official missionaries of the church. |
| 1978 | Ghana | Edwin Q. "Ted" Cannon, Janath Cannon, Rendell N. Mabey, Rachel Mabey | Billy Johnson and others had shared the Book of Mormon with many people in Ghana and even been recognized as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by the government in 1968, but none of these people had been baptized. Immediately after the June 1978 Revelation on Priesthood, Ted Cannon and Merrill J. Bateman had made a short fact-finding trip to Ghana and Nigeria where they laid the final ground-work for the entry of missionaries a few months later. The missions of the Cannons and the Mabeys resulted in the baptism of several hundred people, most of whom were among those prepared by Johnson and his associates. |
| 1978 | Nigeria | Edwin Q. "Ted" Cannon, Janath Cannon, Rendell N. Mabey, Rachel Mabey | See note on Ghana, above. |
| 1978 | Suriname | John Limburg and Beverly Limburg | |
| 1978 | Palau | Ron Brown and Stanton Akana | |
| 1980 | Belize | Samuel Flores and Robert Henke | |
| 1980 | Haiti | Glenn E. Stringham | |
| 1980 | Papua New Guinea | L. Douglas Johnson and Eva Johnson | |
| 1980 | St. Vincent and the Grenadines | Steven B. Wooley and Terry Williams | |
| 1983 | St. Lucia | Todd Hardy, Paul Jackson, Jay Schroeder, and Marty Harris | |
| 1984 | St. Kitts and Nevis | Douglas Myers and Robert J. Molina | |
| 1984 | Antigua and Barbuda | Ralph Tate and Aileen Tate | |
| 1984 | Nauru | Joseph B. Keeler | |
| 1984 | Tuvalu | Joseph B. Keeler, Glen Cornwall, and Shirley Cornwall | |
| 1985 | Grenada | Robert W. Hoffmaster and Leonard G. Gill | |
| 1986 | Democratic Republic of the Congo | R. Bay Hutchings and Jean Hutchings | |
| 1987 | Swaziland | Kenneth Edwards and Betty Edwards | |
| 1987 | Liberia | J. Duffy Palmer and his wife Jacelyn Palmer | |
| 1987 | Cyprus | James O. Henrie and Evelyn H. Henrie | |
| 1988 | Guyana | Benjamin Hudson and Ruth Hudson | |
| 1988 | Cape Verde | Marion K. Hamblin, Christopher Lee, Ken Margetts | |
| 1988 | Côte d'Ivoire | Barnard S. Silver and Cherry Silver | |
| 1988 | Sierra Leone | ||
| 1989 | Lesotho | Marc Modersitzki and Bradley Saunderson | |
| 1990 | Botswana | R.J. Stone | |
| 1990 | Namibia | ||
| 1990 | Uganda | Lark Washburn and Arlea Washburn | |
| 1990 | Estonia | Gary L. Browning | Browning was the president of the Finland Helsinki East Mission, which had jurisdiction over Estonia. |
| 1991 | Ukraine | Gary L. Browning | Browning was the president of the Finland Helsinki East Mission, which had jurisidiction over Ukraine. |
| 1991 | Kenya | ||
| 1991 | Republic of Congo | ||
| 1992 | Mongolia | Kenneth H. Beesley and Donna Beesley | |
| 1992 | Malawi | James Griggs and Diane Griggs | |
| 1992 | Tanzania | ||
| 1992 | Albania | ||
| 1992 | Lithuania | Gary L. Browning; Robert A. Rees and Ruth Rees | Browning was president of the Helsinki Finland East Mission, which had jurisdiction over Lithuania. The Rees were the first missionaries assigned to preach in Lithuania. |
| 1993 | Angola | ||
| 1993 | Cameroon | ||
| 1993 | Central African Republic | "a French missionary couple" | |
| 1993 | Ethiopia | Eugene Hilton and Ruth Hilton | |
| 1993 | Madagascar | ||
| 1995 | Solomon Islands | E. Crawford Jones and Judith Jones | |
| 1997 | Moldova | ||
| 1999 | Mozambique | ||
| 1999 | Georgia | Philip Reber and Betty Reber | |
| 2001 | Kazakhstan | Barry A. Baker and Tamara H. Baker |